Ghoulable or Just Paranormal?

Most people have at least one paranormal experience, says psychologist Tony Jinks.

The dream that proved predictive, the medium who knew all about your departed mother, the vision at the foot of the bed, the creepy sense that a house was haunted are all experiences that show people are open to non-rational phenomena.

Psychologists usually explain them by reducing the experiences to an emotional trauma or dysfunction. But Jinks, who is the author of an Introduction to the Psychology of Paranormal Belief and Experience, believes there are other ways to look at the paranormal, which he says is not necessarily a sign of neurosis or psychosis but may be a positive way of living a rich and meaningful life.

Guests

Dr. Tony Jinks

Psychologist at the School of Social Sciences and Psychology at the University of Western Sydney, Hawkesbury and Kingswood campuses since 2001, with a special interest in the psychology of the paranormal and olfactory perception and cognition. He is the author of An Introduction to the Psychology of Belief and Experience, 2011.